Semiconductor transistors have been a mainstay of the electronics industry. Capable of being inexpensively mass produced, many integrated circuits comprise millions or billions of transistors. As the transistors are scaled down various effects (e.g., gate leakage current, etc.) inadvertently increase the standby power and reduce the ability of the scaled transistor to be completely switched making scaling below 10 nm gate length problematic. The off-to-on resistance ratio in transistors is relatively low and as the transistors scale down, their off resistance become low further reducing their off-to-on resistance ratio. Conduction through semiconductors also is affected as a function of temperature and radiation making silicon electronics, especially when scaled down to 10-30 nm gate lengths, severely problematic at elevated temperatures and in environments with cosmic and other (nuclear) radiation.
While various alternative types of devices other than semiconductor transistors have been under consideration, none have yet been able to replace the ubiquitous semiconductor transistor. Alternate device types can suffer limitations due to high switching voltages, low speed, large real-state area, difficulty in fabrication, and limited temperature operating ranges among other factors.
Mechanical switches have inherent radiation resistance, very high off-to-on resistance ratio and very low on resistance. Unfortunately, mechanical switches tend to be bulky and large, slow and unreliable with large turn on voltage and varying contact resistance.